Well, remember that Kwan's 2001 Free skate was literally flawless; I mean, while Irina does have higher jumps and stronger spins, she almost never can beat a flawless Kwan (especially a 7 triple, 3-3, and 2 3-lutzes Kwan). Head to head, Kwan's perfection magnifies Irina's "sloppiness" and inelegant stroking; the judges had given it to Irina all season, but Kwan, once again, nailed it at Worlds, and the judges went with it (and Kwan even skated early in the group). A decisive win for Kwan, imo.
Totally agree. Irina even got one 5.9 for presentation which was absurd. Kwan getting 5.7s on tech was almost as bad. These were the bad old days of judging
peggy was right double toe on the end. on another note her arm movements are silly and superfluous and that triple triple was waaay under rotated almost a coming out forward and ABC didn't catch that.
I loved Irina, but technically she only landed 5 clean triples in this program.. Her 3loops were both under-rotated. Why she even scored higher technically than Michelle according to a few judges is beyond me. Michelle had 7 clean triples (albeit 2 flutzes and 1 lip). Michelle was the best that night.
Why does she always act like she's robbed? Clean performance from Michelle with 7 triple jumps. While 6 triples for her with poor presentation. And she acts like she was robbed? Is she nuts?
Did Michelle do a lip? I hadn't noticed that she ever did that. If so, she should have been able to do a proper lutz, lol. You're right, though; Michelle gets the technical as well as the artistic edge here. Especially if the quality of spins is counted toward the technical. Compare Michelle's sit spin to Irina's.
Most of the judges are in that part of Europe where she comes from. They could have easily put her ahead of Kwan if they thought she was good enough - they didn't.
I was at that event and they actually put the ordinals up on the jumbotron in the arena ahead of the TV broadcast. That's why you hear the sudden cheering.
Not drunk just biased. I think all the judges awarded Kwan either a 5.8 or 5.9 for artistic, including this one. So to put Slutskaya ahead, the judge had to award her that mark.
Not only that but Slutskaya lost two ordinals to Maria Butyrskaya in the long program. I would have placed Slutskaya technically ahead of Butyrskaya as well, but well-below both Kwan and Butyrskaya in presentation. Outside the jumps, the choreography and content was severely lacking. Even her usually great spins were sloppy here (bad position transitions and traveling). It's amazing how content-full Slutskaya's programs became later on because you wouldn't have guessed that from this routine.
Oh brother!!!! Got a psycho here who think he/she's Michelle Kwan's BFF!!!!!!!!!! TIM TO BAIL OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you know I'm not an athlete? I may not be a figure skater, but....
Her routine was very sloppy. So glad Michelle beat her. Irina shouldn’t have gotten higher marks in presentation than Michelle, the judges scored wrong.
triple salchow-triple loop (the loop was half a rotation short), 5.9s for technical is obviously rigged (the russian or eastern european way of winning)
It’s always the same, also in the comments. America vs Europe. Well let me tell ya Yankees, here in Europe we understand presentation and artistic impression drastically differently than you do. What’s artistry to you is just superficial rubbish for simple people to us. McDonalds in skating. That’s why we would normally always go for this performance ahead of Kwan’s. Who was perhaps more elegant in some moves but the overall expression of Slutskaya and the female beauty in Butyrskaya’s skating was far more appealing. By a mile. Like no comparison at all. Anissina/Peizerat, Drobiazko/Vanagas ahead of Lynn-Bourne/Kratz. Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze over Sale/Pelletier. And so on.
Shame on America! The audience stood up after Slutskaya rolled and television did not even show it! Spectators all understood that Slutskaya won - what a stormy reaction to her rental especially on the final track of steps! SHAME AMERICA! Irina is the champion!
